Shadowhunter Tessa: Book 1
by TheUltimateBookLover08
Summary: DISCLAIMERS: Characters and certain places belong to Cassandra Clare(although I have made slight twists to some of them). Sure, we all loved the sweet, innocent Tessa. What happens when she is pure Shadowhunter, born and raised? Will she be the same sweet girl, or someone completely else? Book 1 of Shadowhunter Tessa. TAGS: The Mortal Instruments, Clace, Wessa, Sizzy, Malec, Tessa


The New York Institute was the only home that Theresa Gray had ever had. Like many other young Shadowhunters, her parents were murdered by demons. Unfortunately, this was not uncommon among her species. When Theresa was orphaned at only a mere age of 4, she was taken in by the New York Institute. They not only offered her care and kind hospitality, but also fulfilled the hole in her heart created by the death of her parents.

So why was she being sent away on a plane, from New York to _London_? Tessa had blamed that on the Clave, of course! They decided to create an international youth program for Shadowhunters age 15 to 17. Tessa had fallen right in the middle of that range. For at least one year, she would be sent away to an institute somewhere in a different area. The Clave wanted to see if young Shadowhunters could learn new skills from being taught by different instructors. To Tessa, this made no sense and was a complete waste of everyone's time.

She had made herself a new family at the New York Institute. Thinking about them usually made Tessa smile, but now all she could do was frown. She wasn't the only Shadowhunter from her institute leaving.

She was disrupted from her thoughts by a voice speaking throughout the plane. "We are about to land in London, soon. Please stay in your seats and buckle in your seatbelt. Thank you, and have a nice flight."

Tessa unpleasantly groaned, causing the elderly lady she was sitting by, to look at her.

"Don't worry, dear. Everyone feels a bit sick on a plane all the time. It's going to be over soon."

Although Tessa was only upset from the idea of being in a new institute soon, she thanked the woman for her kindness. The rest of the flight went by quickly, (a bit too quickly for Tessa), and in a matter of minutes, she was sitting in a taxi on her way to the London Institute. She suddenly began to worry about her stay in London.

_What if I'm behind in training? What if they don't like me? What if they're super snobbish and act as if they're royalty? What if-_

"Ma'am, we're here! Are you sure you got the right address? There isn't much in this area." The taxi driver had a curious expression on his face. To him there was honestly nothing on this street, but that was only because he couldn't see through glamours. Most mundanes couldn't.

However, Tessa could see a magnificent building right in front of her. "I'm sure this is the right place. Thank you for your concern but I must be on my way." After she had paid the driver, he helped get her luggage out of the taxi. It wasn't much, just a couple of clothes, cheesy mementos, and_ books_. _Lots and lots of books._

She didn't know whether there'd be a library in this Institute, or not. Tessa couldn't risk being deprived of a decent amount of books, for a whole year. She just couldn't. She claimed reading was only a mere hobby of hers, although all her friends said she was obsessed. _'As if!'_, Tessa thought. _'There is no such thing as "too many books!"'_

As she was reaching for the brass knocker, the doors were swung wide open, letting Tessa get a glimpse of who had opened them. In front of her stood a woman, tall like Tessa. She had a long scar on the side of her face, but Tessa prevented herself from staring at it out of respect. What stood out to Tessa the most was the young woman's outfit. _'She's a maid'_, Tessa thought to herself. _'The New York Institute didn't have housekeepers. Everyone just pitched in to help with chores.'_

The young woman moved to the side, allowing Tessa to walk in, and closing the door behind her. "Are you the Shadowhunter from New York? The one from the youth program?" Before Tessa had time to answer, the woman spoke again.

"My name is Sophie. Follow me, Charlotte has been waiting for you." She paced through the corridors, not stopping to explain who Charlotte is. Finally, Sophie had stopped in front of a big set of doors. "Charlotte is in there." She nodded towards the doors. Tessa was about to walk in, but Sophie stopped her once more.

"Oh, dear! Let me take your bags for you, I'll bring them to your room. Now, go on!" Sophie ushered Tessa in, and left as quickly as she had come.

Tessa glanced around the room, realizing it was an office. There was a large desk towards the back with a woman on one side, two boys on the other. It was then that she noticed that everyone was staring at her. Not knowing what to say, she just awkwardly stood there waiting for something to happen. Instead of meeting there inspecting gaze with her eyes, she distracted herself with the books on the shelf, reading off the names in her head.

After a few seconds, a voice spoke, causing Tessa to look up. "I assume you are the transfer from The New York Institute?" The voice came from the woman behind the desk, who finally stood up to shake hands with Tessa.

"Yes, that's me." Tessa replied.

"Wonderful, now we can get started. As you must already know, I am Charlotte Branwell, but everyone calls me Charlotte around here. These two young men are part of the new youth program as well. Introduce yourselves, boys." Charlotte gestured at the two boys. One was still staring at Tessa, but the other looked around the room uninterested.

The boy who was looking at her suddenly stood up and smiled at Tessa kindly. "I'm James Carstairs, but everyone calls me 'Jem'. I came from the Shanghai Institute in China." Tessa took the opportunity to examine him more closely. At what she originally thought was blonde hair, was actually silverfish. His hair wasn't the only feature she found interesting. His eyes were silver as well, and his skin was quite pale-yet, if he were sick, he most likely wouldn't be smiling so brightly to Tessa.

He then pointedly looked at the other boy who was still slouching slightly in his seat. "That is William Heron-" As if finally realizing what was going on, the boy-William, jumped up from his seat and put on a grin. It wasn't as sweet as Jem's smile, but it was definitely charming.

"I'm William Herondale! However, everyone calls me 'Will'. I'm from the Wales Institute. Not as far from here as China is, though.." He dragged the last sentence, so Tessa guessed he was done speaking._ 'My turn, now.'_

"Well, I'm Theresa Gray. Everyone calls me 'Tessa', and I come from New York… but I'm guessing you all knew that, already." Tessa shifted on her heels waiting for a reply.

"Not the 'Tessa' part." Will observed. "We all have nicknames! Did anyone else notice, or was it just me? We could create a private club…" Jem nudged him before glancing back at Tessa with a sheepish smile. In return, Will rolled his eyes.

"Anyway," Charlotte continued, obviously wanting to change the subject, "Will and Jem both made it here yesterday, so they had time to explore the institute a bit."

"Do you have a library?" Tessa asked suddenly. She couldn't help it. She was too exhausted to read on the plane ride, and she had a sudden urge to grab the next book she spots. It was nerve-racking in here, and reading helped her relax. Will raised an eyebrow at her, and Tessa thought she saw the corner of his lips slightly tug upward. She couldn't help but feel she imagined it.

Charlotte seemed a bit surprised by her sudden question. "Of course, we do. You can check on it later. I'm sure we're done here. If you have any questions, I'll be in here most of the time. You may all leave now." She sat back down behind her desk as they all went out through the door.

Jem and Will both went around the corner, leaving Tessa standing in front of Charlotte's office. There were two directions Tessa could go in. She should really be looking for her room, but she had absolutely no idea where to go or what to do. Tessa chose the wisest method to find out which way to go: She covered her eyes with her hands and started spinning. Wherever she faced on her 5th spin would be the right direction.

_One spin, two spins, three spi-_

"What are you doing?" The voice came from a male. Or a woman with quite a deep voice. There was only one way to find out. She slowly removed her hands, enjoying the dramatic effect of suspense. Tessa's eyes were a bit blurry, so she rubbed them slightly, and glanced at where the voice was coming from.

In front of her stood Will. She had never actually _looked_ at Will much, and tried taking in his appearance. He had black hair-_really_ black hair. He was definitely tall, taller than even Tessa herself. Will was lean, but his muscles stood out against his shirt, obviously from fighting demons. The eyes were what got her, though. They were blue, an odd shade of blue that was both peaceful and fierce at the same time. She saw him smirk, knowing she had been caught checking him out.

"I was_ spinning_. What did you think I was doing?" Tessa narrowed her gray eyes at him. He may be handsome, but automatically Tessa knew he's had plenty of "_flings_" to last a lifetime.

"I don't know", his smirk didn't falter, and neither did the trace of arrogance in his voice. "I mean, it's _completely _normal to blindly spin in a hallway." She heard the sarcasm while he was speaking. Two can play at this game.

"If you say so. I would've thought it to be an absolute un-normal action, but you've been in London longer than I have._ I'd_ like to know how many times you've done this." Tessa proceeded to spin, not bothering to cover up her eyes this time. It wasn't the best comeback on spot, but it was enough to see the smirk wiped off his face and replaced with a pursed line.

"But really. What are you doing?" He wasn't going to give up, was he?

Tessa sighed and finally stopped spinning. "I was trying to find out which direction my room was", Tessa explained, as if it were the most obvious explanation in the world.

"How is spinning going to help you do that? I don't get it." He had a confused expression on his face that almost made her want to laugh.

"Whichever direction I land on my fifth spin is the direction _I shall go in_." Tessa attempted to say the last part with elegance, just for the fun of it. From his even more confused facial expression, she guessed she wasn't being very elegant.

"'Shall go in?' What is this, the Victorian Era?" Will started following Tessa as she started wandering down one of the corridors.

"Possibly." Tessa replied. She wasn't really paying attention to their amusing conversation. She continuously peeped in the many rooms of the institute, looking for…,"the library!" Tessa opened the door all the way, allowing herself to enter. She saw Will look at her with an amused smile, and turned away before he could see her face tinge red. She nearly ran to the closest shelf and started skimming the book spines for a familiar title.

Her eyes landed on a beautiful copy of _Great Expectations_, by none other than Charles Dickens himself. Tessa plucked the book from the shelf and went to sit on the window seat, not noticing Will watching her curiously. She propped one leg over the other and opened the book to chapter one. However, before she could commence reading, she was interrupted, once again.

"Poor Pip…"

Tessa looked up from the book, to see Will sitting next to her. "What do you mean?" Tessa could guess what he meant, but she wondered what he would say. Will was not like many other boys she had met.

"Unrequited love amuses me", Will replied casually, picking at his nails. It was an odd answer that Tessa had not expected.

"Why is that?" Tessa wanted to understand Will. There was something he was hiding from her-from _everyone, _something that intrigued her.

Will chuckled, with no humor. "You certainly do ask a lot of questions."

Tessa reddened and looked down at the book, not actually reading it. She was more concentrated on hiding her face from Will. She didn't want to give him the pleasure of knowing that he had embarrassed her. Of course, she avoided questioning him for the rest of her time in his presence.

Tessa's head was so busy with thoughts, that she couldn't actually focus on what she was reading. She hastily closed the book and placed it on the shelf where she had found it. When she glanced back at the window seat, Tessa noticed Will had left-or so she thought.

He was peering at her through the many shelves of the library, observing how she moved so awkwardly, and how stray locks of her hair had fallen from her bun. It had taken Will much restrain to keep from tucking the bits of hair back in. He loved how easy it was to tease her, and how she felt was written clearly on her face. Her gray eyes had changed over the period of time he had known her. Sometimes they had tints of blue in them when she was happy, they were dark and rounded when she set her mind to something. Tessa had mesmerized him in a way no other woman had.

"Would you look at that? Someone finally managed to make Will swoon!"


End file.
